Duplicated freesite file structure

[DirtyDani]

Hey everybody,

As I have mentioned, I am fairly new to making freesites, I think I have the structural part of it down but the part that I don't quite "get" is file structure for duplicated freesites.

I know that most LLs don't like mirrored warning pages, so it is better to have separate directories. Dandy, but do all of the site's files have to reside in individual directories, or can I have all the pics linking to one central "images" directory in an effort to conserve disk space?

Seems like a waste to have several copies of each set on the server...

Thanks!

Danielle

[Halfdeck]

This is the way I used to do it, although I didn't make enough free sites to tell you if it's a good way:

www.xx.com/amateur/index.html
http://www.xx.com/amateur/main.html,....gallery2.html (renamed using keywords)
www.xx.com/amateur/images/ (pics,thumbs & graphics go here)

for LL's that accepts mirrors:

www.xx.com/amateur/index.htm
www.xx.com/amateur/warning.htm (optional)
www.xx.com/amateur/sexy-warning.htm... (very optional)

Then I go one directory down for more mirrors:

www.xx.com/amateur/cutie/index.html, main.html, gallery1....
www.xx.com/amateur/sexy/index.html

The only problem for me personally with this is most of those pages would get dup penalty, so for sites I submitted to lower traffic LLs, it was also likely it wouldn't get any SE traffic either. So if I decided to build free sites again, I wouldn't bother with too many mirrors.

If I had the option of linking all the mirror index pages to a single main.html page instead of linking to different main.html pages, then I'd have unique SE listings for all the pages. Unfortunately, alot of LL's don't allow that, probably for good reason.

[DirtyDani]

Thanks Halfdeck and sorry guys for the post - s'pose I should have done a search on this topic before starting a new thread |doh|

[nottslad]

Interesting thread and, as a relative newbie, something I have been pondering myself.

I tend to make 5 mirror sites per site while I see which sites generally link me and which don't in order to work out my optimum submission list. After a little more trial and error I'll probably whittle this down to maybe 2 or 3 mirrors per site.

This is my old way:

www.domain.com/sitename/ (this dir contains separate folders with both thumbnail and full images plus index.html, main.htm, gallery1.htm and gallery2.htm) so is the usual free site structure.

The first mirror I make a new directory called:
www.domain.com/sitename1/ (this contains only index.html but the index.html calls main.htm from the first directory)

The second mirror I make a new directory called:
www.domain.com/sitename2/ (this again contains only an index.html which again calls main.htm from the first directory)

This way has the advantage of only having to upload one new html file for each mirror. I found using this method that at the vast majority of linklists I submit to it got me accepted (or, if I was rejected it was for other reasons).

There were a couple of sites who did reject me because of this and I am sure Fonz wont mind me saying that Smiling Pussy was one site that rejected me because of this (I dont know if this is a new rule, or if I escaped previously as my first few sites using that structure were accpeted). His advice was to "keep all html files in the same directory".

Noting that the advice does not mention about keeping image files in the same directory I now use this directory structure:

www.domain.com/sitename/ (this dir contains seperate folder with both thumbnail and full images plus index.html, main.htm, gallery1.htm and gallery2.htm) so is the same as the one above and a full free site in itself.

The first mirror I make a new directory called:
www.domain.com/sitename1/ (this contains index.html, main.htm, gallery1.htm and gallery2.htm but calls images from the sitename directory above)

The second mirror I make a new directory called:
www.domain.com/sitename2/ (again this contains index.html, main.htm, gallery1.htm and gallery2.htm but again calls images from the sitename directory above)

Of course you have to upload 3 more files per mirror but since the main.htm and gallery.htm pages are light, like 6 or 7KB, they take up next to no diskspace. The images, that would have a significant effect on diskspace if uploaded multiple times, only have to be uploded once.

I'm not saying this file structure is the correct way just a way that has not led to me experiencing any rejections for directory structure since I started using it.

I would appreciate any feedback on this from link list owners and perhaps also someone could tell me why the first method is frowned upon by some - I can't see the harm in it myself.

Also can someone explain what is a 'dup penalty' that Halfdeck referred to above?

Hope that helps

[Halfdeck]

Dup penalty is my abbreviation for duplicate content penalty. Google/Yahoo devalues a page (title/description are missing) or refuses to index it they pages in a domain with similar content.

[Fonz]

Originally Posted by nottslad

There were a couple of sites who did reject me because of this and I am sure Fonz wont mind me saying that Smiling Pussy was one site that rejected me because of this (I dont know if this is a new rule, or if I escaped previously as my first few sites using that structure were accpeted). His advice was to "keep all html files in the same directory".

That rule was indeed added later on mainly because of the 50+ sites I got submitted every day using redicilous directory structures. Now with the partner account thing I tend to go a little easier on this rule. But I still preffer to see all html files in the same directory.

[caringneo]

Good that you have posted it Fonz. I will apply for a partner account soon.
Neo

[Jel]

I'd be interested in the reasoning behind having to submit the true index page of a freesite. As far as I can see it makes no difference if a submitter uses keyword-or-phrase.html to sub to me, rather than the true index. This eliminates the need for multiple directories, (and for that matter jumping from folder to folder with html pages, which I also am not a fan of, and haven't done since my 'early' days in this) but I, as usual, am probably missing something. But what?